Will PSG Owners Back Beckham’s Miami Franchise?

byDavidonFebruary 10, 2014

A tantalizing piece in the French newspapers Le Parisien that David Beckham has approached Paris St. Germain owners to help with funding for his new MLS expansion team, which is expected to begin play in 2017

Beckham finished his career at PSG, and is reported to be on very good terms with the teams owners, Qatar Sports Investments (QSI).

“Yes, David Beckham has asked us for help,” Le Parisien quotes a QSI source as saying. “No decision has been taken yet.”

Becks has already lined up Bolivian-born billionaire Marcelo Claure as one of his partners, but adding the wealth of QSI group to the Miami franchise, would allow Miami to compete with any team in MLS, including the likes of New York City FC, Seattle Sounders, LA Galaxy and Toronto FC.

QSI are amongst the richest owners in all of sports, and have shown their willingness to invest in soccer clubs, “investing” more than €300m in PSG since 2011.

The question for non-Miami fans is are the likes of QSI and NYFC’s owner Sheik Mansour good for MLS, or will it create a two-level league between the super-rich and small market sides?

I wrote earlier about how the Philadelphia Union are not impressed with Toronto’s spending spree this offseason. Toronto has spent close to $90m this offseason on transfer fees and wages, which is more than some franchises have spent in their complete history. Is that a good thing?